Poison Statistics
Washington, DC Metro Area, 2017

In 2017, the National Capital Poison Center provided 94,990 consultations about poisonings. Approximately 42% percent (39,473) were calls about people exposed to a poison. An additional 42,552 (45%) were human poison exposures managed online through webPOISONCONTROL®. Other telephone consultations involved pet poisonings (1,344) and information requests (11,621). Some interesting facts include:

Most poison exposures (76%) were unintentional. The Center also received calls about other types of poisonings: medication side effects, substance abuse, malicious poisonings, and suicide attempts.

11,621 people (22% of the telephone consultations) called for poison-related information. Their questions were about possible problems with medication interactions, pesticide use, workplace chemicals, the safety of specific medications while breast-feeding, and many more topics.

41% of poison exposures involved children younger than six, but the most serious cases occurred in adolescents and adults.

75% of poison exposures involved people who swallowed a drug or poison. People were also poisoned by inhalation and through exposures to the skin or eyes.

64% of poison exposures were safely managed over the phone and did not need medical treatment in a health care facility. However, 83% of those who called a poison center first, before going to a health care facility were safety treated at home. This number increases to 91% for pediatric poisonings when the Poison Center is consulted first, before other medical intervention is sought.

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Common and dangerous poisons

What happens when I call Poison Control?

Poison Control is available 24 hours a day to provide free, expert and confidential guidance in a poison emergency. When you call, a poison specialist will ask you questions to determine the severity of your case, then provide recommendations.